MI Cement receives financing for expansion, Bangladesh

27 January 2011

Bangladesh private cement manufacturer and exporter, MI Cement Factory Limited (MICFL), said today that it has received an overwhelming response for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to finance its ongoing 3000t cement grinding unit expansion. This project, including other other port infrastructure is estimated to cost of ARS3.34bn (US$47m), says a top official of company.

Mukter H Talukder, CFO of MI Cement, told CemNet that the IPO for ARS3.34bn was oversubscribed by five hundred times this week. The company proposed to invest its IPO proceeds for the implementation of its new fourth unit and other facilities to increase production capacity.

The plant is expected to begin commercial operations in August 2011. Some 80 per cent of its production will be sold to the local market and 20 per cent will be exported to India. MICFL has already obtained acceptance from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and has been exporting to the Indian state of Tripura since 2003. MICFL has also recently started exporting cement to the Indian states of Meghalay and Asam. In the fiscal year 2008-09, the company exported more than 45,000t cement to India.

This fourth unit is to be located on the existing plant site at West Mukhterpur, Munshigonj. The new unit will include (i) pregrinding equipment (ii) cement grinding section (iii) cement packing section (iv) a 33/llkV power sub-station (v) 132/33kV power substation (vi) clinker storage silo (vii) bulk material unloading device with a mini silo (viii) cement extraction system and (ix) weighfeeder for feeding raw materials proportionately (x) barge loading system. (xi) truck loading system (xii) cement silo (xiii) hydraulic crane with jetty. The new unit will require constructing additional cement silo, one clinker silo and two new jetties, etc. China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) has already won a contract to supply all machinery and other major equipment for the plant expansion.

Bangladesh has an estimated installed capacity of 18.56Mta of cement and local demand stands at around 12Mt in 2009 from the production of 32 units. Cement demand in 2010 and onwards is expected to increase 15 per cent per annum.
Published under Cement News